Guy Kawasaki, who started blogging recently, posts his 10 tips on how to be a great panelist. Great post and I highly recommend subscribing to Guy’s blog.
Guy Kawasaki on How to Kick Butt On a Panel
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Author Archives: David
Drupal Driven Web Sites
Gunnar Langemark has been highlighting numerous web sites that are published using Drupal, an open source content management system and community platform. If you are researching Drupal, you should review the sites that Gunnar has highlighted. Really impressive stuff.
PrAjax
Pragmatic Studios is holding a 3-day Ajax training in Reston, VA next month. Check it out if you want your web dev team to be up to speed on the latest in interactive web applications.
Behind the Scenes at an Apple Keynote
Here is a great article by Mike Evangelist in the Guardian that talks about what goes into one of Steve Jobs’ apparently effortless presentations:
With the demo set, my role was to stand by in case of technical problems with the software, or if Steve wanted to change anything. This gave me the opportunity to observe what was going on around me. The big keynotes require a very large crew with separate teams for each major task. One prepares the room to seat several thousand people. Another group builds the stage with its motorised pedestals, risers, trap doors, and so forth. A third manages the stage lighting, audio and effects.
Yet another sets up and calibrates the state-of-the-art projection systems (complete with redundant backup systems), and a huge remote video truck parked outside has its own crew handling video feeds for the webcasts and playback of any video needed during the show. Then there are the people who set up all the computers used in the keynote, each with at least one backup that can be instantly brought online with the flick of a switch.
It takes a few hundred people a couple of months to prep and deliver one of those presentations. The fact that Steve’s demos always just work is a big part of Apple’s brand. This is not by accident. (Via Presentation Zen.)
Nielsen on the importance of converting search engine ad traffic
Jakob Nielsen has posted a short article you should read about the importance of converting search engine advertising traffic: Search Engines as Leeches on the Web.
Search engines extract too much of the Web’s value, leaving too little for the websites that actually create the content. Liberation from search dependency is a strategic imperative for both websites and software vendors.
Worth a read if you are using advertising on search engines to drive traffic to your web site.
Rolling Support Forums Into Customer Support Escalation
David Weinberger had an interesting experience with Logitech’s support forums:
I posted a question to the Logitech customer forum because my new MX1000 mouse seems to pull downward— I have trouble getting it to point precisely where I want it, so I’m doing a lot of mis-selecting. Today I received an auto-mail message from Logitech telling me that they’ve noticed that no one replied to my question, so they’re escalating it to a human Logitech support person.
What a wonderful idea. I always recommend to my clients that they have their staff engaged in any communities that they host (which derives directly from David’s writing in Cluetrain Manifesto). Auto escalating posts that have no response in x amount of time is a brilliant idea. It gives the community time to serve itself and then makes sure they get a response from staff if the community is unable or willing to address the question.
Very simple but it makes sure the person who posted the question feels like someone is listening, which is a very powerful experience (as is the opposite if no one replies).
2005 Best of High Context Blog
I just went through my archive of posts for 2005 and have collected links to the entries I think are the most interesting or I’m the most proud of. Here they are in reverse chronological order:
Can You Get a Bad Grade on a Wikipedia Entry?
From just this week, where I mea culpa on making an error in the unconference entry of wikipedia. This got me a link from Dave Winer, which provided about 700 pageviews of that entry in 24 hours. A new record!
Conference vs. Unconference
This post was inspired after reading about several recent conferences that let the attendees drive and provide the content rather than it being delivered top down. With the help of a few others, I compile a comparison list of attributes between traditional conferences and unconferences.
The 15 Minute Web Plan
Create a plan of action for your web site in 15 minutes.
5 Ways to Improve the Online Dues Payment Process
A list of tips on improving the dues payment experience online. The tips focus on the goal of making it as fast and easy as possible for them to pay you money.
Associations Blogging Katrina
A round-up of blogs by associations covering the Katrina disaster. I think the most compelling stories by associations on this issue were told via blogs in the immediate aftermath of the hurricane.
I Read My News via HTTP
How RSS will eventually be used so widely you won’t even realize you are using it.
Content Garden Hoses
A favorite analogy of mine on managing web content flow in a large, decentralized organization.
KMpings is Dead, Long Live del.icio.us/tag/km!
Retirement of the KMpings trackback service after a run of a couple years.
Announcing High Context Consulting!
This one was personally important to me, obviously. It has been a great first 6 months of business since my launch. This experience has exceeded my expectations. Thanks to all of you who have supported me!
Managing Logins for a Members-only Web Site
General recommendations on managing member logins based on years of painful experience. 🙂
Association Weblog Round-up
Another round-up post on association blogs around the web. Some by associations, some by association people.
Give Me Unified Login or Give Me Death!
A question came across the ASAE Technology Section list this week about how to manage multiple logins for a variety of web-based services offered to members of an association. I chose to deliver a bit of a rant rather than a direct answer. I’ve posted my note below:
I think the time has come where any serious vendor in the association market should support authentication from another system for their product and associations should begin to demand it.
As others have posted, this level of integration is relatively easy to achieve via web services. Sure, each association/system will have its quirks that may require some tweaking but the basics are well defined.
Hostile user/login management systems immediately cripple your ability to create member value on the web. We, as an industry, shouldn’t tolerate it any longer.
I think that people these days are willing to create a new login for organizations/companies that they interact with and receive value from. One login. Unless the value you provide is incredibly high, most will not be happy to create multiple logins for just you and many will not bother. Vendors take note: you’ll be at an increasingly greater competitive disadvantage the longer you fail to support external authentication mechanisms in your services and products.
Can you get a bad grade on a Wikipedia entry?
I believe that Dave Winer would give me a low one based on his reaction to my incorrect attribution of coining the term ‘unconference’ to him rather than Lenn Pryor in the unconference entry I started. Sorry about that Lenn!
John Robb points out that Dave could have easily made the edit in addition to just complaining about it. A few folks have jumped in to clean up the entry some more since Dave’s post.
I think the point here is not that I didn’t approach writing a wikipedia article like writing a research paper. The point is that I got the ball rolling in about 5 minutes for a topic that really deserved an entry. 20 other people can each spend five minutes improving it and eventually you’ll have a nice solid piece. Is this a bad thing?
Update: Dave responds in the comments to John’s post discussing his concerns with Wikipedia.
Lean XHTML and Precise CSS
For those of you employing or exploring standards-based designs using CSS (and this should be all of you!), check out this post on Lean XHTML and Precise CSS. Looks like a good method for organizing your stylesheets. CSS files can get pretty complex as your site develops, so having some organizational method will make life easier down the road. The article also reviews the benefits of keeping presentation code in CSS and out of your page markup.
(Via 456 Bereas Street blog.)
C. David Gammel, CAE 